Meghan Ely is the owner of wedding marketing and wedding pr firm OFD Consulting. As a highly sought-after speaker in the wedding industry, she is the exclusive Wedding PR Education Expert for WeddingWire as well as the national Communications and Marketing Director for WIPA. To learn how OFD Consulting can assist you, as well as more about our new wedding PR kits, please visit us today.

Oftentimes, we see that real wedding features have been submitted by the wedding photographer but the fact is, there are other types of wedding professionals who can benefit from press! Even if you are not the event photographer, you can still share your work and expertise through submissions!

The key to a solid submission, however, is a selection of swoon worthy, detail driven shots which still makes the wedding photographer the proverbial gatekeeper. So how do you submit a wedding from start to finish with the help of your wedding photographer?

Here are a few tips and tricks to get you started:

Approach them in advance: If you have a particularly good handle on the overall look of an upcoming wedding, contact the wedding photographer ahead of time to let them know you have an interest in submitting. Gauge their interest and if he or she is open to it. Share some of the types of images that tend to make a submission particularly competitive and work together to get the shots you envision.

Step in their shoes for the moment: Before you begin asking for a plethora of images, remind yourself just how busy it is for you as a wedding professional. Keep in mind that a photographer will not only be balancing the demands of their clients, but also setting aside ample time for editing images. A two week turnaround time for images immediately following a wedding is simply not realistic. Now is the time to exert a bit of patience and remember that it’s not always easy to meet everyone’s requests all at once.

Make it easy for them to work with you: In addition to having appropriate expectations, be sure you are doing everything possible to keep things easy for all those involved. The file sizes for images tend to be large so familiarize yourself with applications and programs (such as DropBox and YouSendIt), which may serve as a solution for how the photographer sends you photos. Make it a point to collect all remaining information for the submission, manage sending it in, and be sure to keep them abreast of any media pickups. They’re far more likely to work with you again if you do!

Give credit where credit is due: Although this seem obvious, it is imperative to make sure that the photographer is always credited for their images. This may be easy to remember with the first real wedding feature but it can be quickly forgotten when you find yourself in a situation in which a handful of images are perhaps pulled for another editorial piece. Make sure you are the advocate for the photographer when they are not in a position to be.Also, recognize the other wedding Pros that you worked with for the event, so everyone gets the credit they deserve for their work.

Say thank you: After all, wedding PR strategies and trends will come and go, but gratitude will never go out of style!

Mutually beneficial relationships with your fellow wedding professionals can be key to the success of one’s wedding business. With great wedding photographers on your team, the same will be true for your wedding PR initiatives.